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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25801549">Whole</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HandmaidenOfHorror/pseuds/HandmaidenOfHorror'>HandmaidenOfHorror</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Backstory, M/M, Multiple Personalities, Worldbuilding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:27:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,214</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25801549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HandmaidenOfHorror/pseuds/HandmaidenOfHorror</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro has a visitor on the astral plane. Or rather, many visitors who help him find himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Shiro (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Whole</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/gifts">Tassos</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The astral plane was unchanging. He grew used to it. He could always feel the presence of Black Lion, but otherwise the dimension was empty. The calming, cold colors turning from one to another like an aurora reminded him of the time Mrs Shirogane took him to Iceland when he was a kid-</p><p>And then the plane was empty no more. Shiro felt him before he saw him. Another <em>him</em>, the evil one, the imposter – he was there, minus the arm prosthesis, looking around in confusion. Shiro was overcame with anger.</p><p>“You!” he shouted, charging at the other man. He didn’t know if he could hurt him on the astral plane, he didn’t know how the other man found himself in it, but he was just so angry!</p><p>“Who-“ the other man asked in surprise, but didn’t have time to finish the question, as he had to dodge to avoid Shiro’s white-hot Galra arm.</p><p>“You know who I am, imposter!” shouted Shiro, charging for another attack. Even though the other man lacked any weapon, they had the same training, making them exceptionally good at escaping attacks of stronger opponents, which the not-Shiro did perfectly, frustrating Shiro. The two men had to stop, several feet of distance between them. Shiro didn’t know he could run out of breath on astral plane.</p><p>“Please wait!” pleaded not-Shiro, “Why am I here? Where is here? The last thing I remember was Keith returning, and then I was here and you attacked me! What is going on?”</p><p>Shiro laughed.</p><p>“What happened was that you showed your true colors and attacked your ‘friends’ letting Lotor escape! It’s your fault that the Castle of Lions is gone, and now you are dead too and stuck with me for the eternity!”</p><p>“What-,“ not-Shiro looked extremely pale and… terrified?</p><p>Shiro felt it was a perfect moment to attack when he heard a high, childish voice.</p><p>“Why are you so dead set on destroying yourself, Takashi?”</p><p>He turned his head and saw someone he wanted to forget for so long, a preteen in pastel colored sailor uniform.</p><p>“Get lost!” Shiro growled at the kid, “This doesn’t concern you.”</p><p>“It does,” replied the kid, “As I am you and you and you.”</p><p>‘<em>Too many yous,</em>’ Shiro thought and turned around rapidly. His metaphorical blood froze when he saw him – Shiro the gladiator, Shiro the Champion, his greatest fear.</p><p>“You always cut away the parts of yourself you are ashamed or afraid of, but what would be left of yourself when you get rid of all of them?”, asked the man in rags of Galra prisoner.</p><p>“We are all Shiro,” added the child, “but we won’t have the whole perspective and won’t be able to help our friends unless we are the <em>whole</em> Shiro.”</p><p>“There’s no helping our friends, “ replied Shiro bitterly, “we are dead and stuck here.”</p><p>“We are not,” the child replied, “right now, our friends are calling for us, but we must return whole.”</p><p>“I think it’s the best idea,” replied not-Shiro, “I want to atone for what I did, even if I don’t know why and how. And you must be so lonely here.”</p><p>“I feel the same,” replied the Champion, “I want to atone and use my abilities to save people rather than hurt them.”</p><p>Shiro fell silent for a moment. He thought about his friends, about all the people he had to protect, about Earth, about <em>Keith</em>.</p><p>“You are right,” he finally replied, holding his human hand toward the child him, “We need to be with our friends. I’m sorry for acting so selfish and moody.”</p><p>“Everybody acts selfish sometimes,” replied the child and hugged Shiro, soon followed by Kuron and Champion. And then, bright light engulfed the astral plane and all the Shiros disappeared.</p><p>***</p><p>Shiro and Keith stood in front of an abandoned building complex. It was huge, like an university campus, but at the same time very dead. Even the front of a former dormitory looked like a skull with many empty eye sockets from the waterfront. Shiro motioned for Keith to follow him, and the younger man did, as always, silently.</p><p>Shiro ignored the sign informing of danger of entering and walked into the front yard of the building, now overgrown. <em>So many years</em>, thought Shiro, <em>and look where our grand ambitions brought us.</em> He then turned to face Keith.</p><p>“You are probably curious why have I asked you to come with me to this place,” said Shiro.</p><p>“I assumed you’d explain once we are here,” replied Keith.</p><p>Shiro moved his gaze back to the building.</p><p>“This is the place where I was made and where I lived for the first eight years,” replied Shiro.</p><p>“Made?” asked Keith, and Shiro turned to face him. This will be difficult.</p><p>“Have you heard of the International Human Genome Improvement Project?” asked Shiro.</p><p>“You are a super soldier?” Keith didn’t seem surprised, “That explains so much.”</p><p>“We were not super soldiers, Keith,” replied Shiro, “We were not meant to be soldiers. Scientists, space explorers, leaders of the humanity in the future. Descendants of all the people of Earth. But…”</p><p>Shiro fell silent, and after a few minutes, Keith broke the tension by hugging his beloved.</p><p>“You don’t have to talk about things that cause you pain, Shiro,” he whispered gently into his ear.</p><p>“No, it’s okay, Keith,” he ended the hug and looked Keith into his eyes, “I wasn’t Takashi Shirogane then. We didn’t have names, only personal numbers. Mine was 46.”</p><p>“Shi-roku,” said Keith, “Shiro.”</p><p>Shiro smiled.</p><p>“Yes, professor Shirogane, one of our caretakers, found this coincidence funny. She adopted me after…”</p><p>Shiro had to explain it properly.</p><p>“No, I’m going too far into this story. Intellectually we grew faster than other children, but not physically or emotionally. I was frustrated with it, wanted to join the space academy right away, and I…”</p><p>Another moment of silence followed.</p><p>“I caused a small fire in the dormitory and while the staff was busy evacuating it I broke into laboratories and injected myself with nano machines they give the astronauts before missions to keep their bodies healthy during prolonged stay in zero gravity.”</p><p>“Oh Shiro,” Keith looked as if he was about to cry.</p><p>“Yeah, without specialists closely looking into its administration I fucked myself up badly. It took me months before I could leave the hospital, and even then doctors said that I only had a few years of relatively stable health left and that I probably won’t live to be twenty.”</p><p>“But you are twenty seven now,” Keith grasped Shiro’s human hand tightly, “You are here, and you no longer suffer from that childish mistake.”</p><p>“Yeah. That’s kinda funny, in a sad way,” replied Shiro.</p><p><em>‘I now have so much more to suffer from’</em>, a thought appeared, but Shiro dismissed it immediately. Yes, his baggage is heavy, but he won’t be alone to carry it. He has friends, and most importantly, he has Keith.  He gave the shell of a building one last glance and turned back to Keith.</p><p>“That’s enough of a reminiscence, now let’s go back to the hotel before Cosmo wakes up and destroys our room while searching for us.”</p><p>The two men laughed at the mental image and left the place, walking to their future.</p>
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